THAT TITLE OF JOSEPH

A reader asked about a Greek title of Joseph (the biblical husband of Mary) found on many icons. Here is a modern example:

The title is that seen at left: Ὁ Μνήστωρ Ιωσήφ / Ho Mnestor Iosef, often found as Ὁ Άγιος Ιωσήφ ὁ Μνήστωρ / Ho Hagios Iosef ho Mnestor.

Well, you already know that Ho Hagios means “the holy” — or we may say simply “Saint.” And you can easily recognize Iosef as Joseph. So aside from those, the word to remember here is Μνήστωρ /Mnestor. It means simply “betrothed,” or as we would likely say in modern English, “fiancé.” Joseph, in the biblical tale, was the betrothed or fiancé of Mary.

Often on icons, Mnestor is written with a ligature (joining of letters), in this case of the S (C or Σ in Greek) and the T. We find such a ligature in this detail from a 1363 fresco of Joseph from the Pantokrator Monastery on Mount Athos:

Or we may see the ligature looking like this:

In any case, Μνήστωρ / Mnestor is just the Greek equivalent of the usual title of Joseph on Slavic icons: Ио́сиф Обру́чник / Iosif Obruchnik, meaning “Joseph the Betrothed.”